Shepherd Construction

BACKGROUND When the time came for Shepherd Construction to start replacing its fleet of document systems, top of the wish list was strong build, with high quality colour copying up to A3 size and network printing facilities. Panasonic multifunction document technology offered it all and more. It is now the technology of choice for the Shepherd Building Group.

With over 100 years of experience in the industry and turnover approaching £400 million, Shepherd Construction is the biggest part of Shepherd Group. Based in York, it has approximately 1,000 employees working in six divisional offices and 35 sites around the country and handles projects up to £100 million in value for the public and private sectors.

CHALLENGE

The ideal opportunity to rethink the company’s document systems strategy followed the upgrade of the corporate network to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Exchange 2003. Among the many benefits was the ability to extend the reach of document scanning and electronic storage of large files to remote users. It was decided that a high quality colour solution with robust build quality was required.

SOLUTION

Shepherd’s preferred MFP supplier for almost 20 years, could supply virtually any make or model of machine. But their account manager recommended the new Panasonic Colour multi-function document system.

“As soon as I saw the superb colour quality, the scanning and printing facilities and, most importantly, the build quality, I knew immediately that it was the ideal product for Shepherd Construction offices and building sites.”

“As you can imagine,” he continues, “although installed in modern, high quality Portakabin offices, copiers and printers on construction sites need to be able to withstand a tremendous amount of heavy use.  It was obvious to me that the new Panasonics are more than up to the challenge”.

The added value benefit for Shepherd site managers was the first ever integration of Panasonic’s innovative small format digital SD storage technology into a multifunction printing device.

CONCLUSION

Steve Waller, Manager of Shepherd Hire Centre, who is responsible for the company’s accommodation needs, was clearly impressed when he saw a demonstration of the Panasonic Colour unit.

“To be honest, I really couldn’t believe it. I would not say that if I did not mean it”.

As he explained, the Panasonic was ideal because it is an all in one machine that network prints, photocopies and can be used for scanning documents up to A3 size into a computer. 

“Most important for us is the build quality. It is structurally pretty sound for use on off building sites and it can work a lot harder than would be required in an ordinary office environment. It really is a good machine. The colour quality is excellent as well.”

Colour quality is vitally important for staff in the Marketing Department, for example, due to the advanced network colour printing capability of the documents and marketing communications materials within tight time schedules. For construction site offices the A3 capability is a particular favourite. This enables staff to produce full size wall charts, with colour graphics showing whether building progress targets across the sites are on track. It is also possible for staff to produce high quality colour brochures for on-site client presentations.

Winning the hearts and minds of project managers is the advanced SD printing technology. Explaining the advantages, Steve Waller says,

“As building projects progress, photographs are taken at different levels to show clients. Because the Panasonic uses the same SD technology as digital cameras, all users need to do to get an instant print is take the card out of the camera and insert it into the machine’s card slot. The quality of colour photographs, even on standard paper, is really very good. The advantage of instant printing is that we no longer have to send photos out to a lab for processing”. 

For laptop users, such as quantity surveyors who are now site-based, it is advanced network printing that wins praise, because it enables them to produce all the documents they need on site. In addition, the much faster turnaround times mean they can be working on the next job while overseeing progress on the current job. If they need to, they can also make use of the Panasonic document systems technology to scan hard copy documents to a PC and, if required, send them to the company’s central electronic storage facility via the recently upgraded Microsoft-based network.

Several Panasonics have been installed and, as the company’s fleet of old machines is progressively replaced, all Shepherd offices and building sites will be getting one

“We are quite committed to them because we think they are such good machines” says Steve Waller.

“I can honestly say they really do have a lot going for them. It is our account managers job to keep us up to date on new systems and we are delighted he brought the Panasonic’s to our attention”.